To the Waters and the Wild
by Dorus the Walrus
Summary: Be careful, those bandana tails can be dangerous, as Leo soon finds out.


Author's Note – The new cartoon designs are more aesthetically pleasing than the old cartoon, but I couldn't help but think that those long bandana tails were kinda dangerous. Then I watched last season's Big Love and, well, I wrote this fic. The title comes from a poem by William Butler Yeats.

**To the Waters and the Wild**

Leo breathed deeply as he glanced quickly around him. A group of twenty Foot soldiers had him surrounded. Leo was willing to admit to himself that he was more than a little wounded; they had managed to overwhelm him with sheer numbers and now he was sporting a nice little stab wound on his right thigh, making him favor his left leg and throwing him off considerably. He could still fight, though, probably better than any of these Foot ninjas combined, and Leo was going to prove it to them. He gritted his teeth and tensed, ready to spring into action as the Foot inched closer to the dangerous turtle.

Suddenly, a flash of light nearly blinded him as the sound of squealing tires filled his ears. He saw the Foot soldiers make a mad dash out of the way and Leo himself… well, he fell on his butt just as the Battleshell came to a screeching halt in front of him. _How embarrassing_, Leo thought as Mikey pulled open the door wearing his familiar grin. "You okay, Leo?" From the way Mikey had asked, Leo knew that his younger brother had witnessed his oh-so-graceful fall. Leo growled as Mikey helped him up.

"Look out!" Donnie yelled, jumping out of the driver's side as the Foot ninja started advancing on the turtles once more. Leo pointedly ignored Don's disapproving look as he once again got into his fighting stance. "Leo… you're hurt…" Don grunted out as he blocked the oncoming Foot attacks.

"No… I'm… not." Leo growled while fighting off his own Foot ninjas.

"Really?" Mikey asked dryly. "So, you always have a gaping, gushing, _icky_ hole in your leg?"

"Yes." Leo answered.

Don and Mike rolled their eyes and went on the offensive, and, with the combined power of the three of them, quickly dispatched the Foot ninja. Leo was immensely glad for that. His leg was numb and Leo was worried that maybe he was starting to loose feeling in it.

"Uh, guys… We're not through yet." Mikey gulped as he pointed up at the top of a building where Leo could see a whole other horde of Foot ninja were gathering. Leo blanched at the sight, worried about the possible outcome of such battle with him injured the way he was. Much to Leo's chagrin, however, Mike and Don had noticed the expression that had flit across their brother's face. Before he knew what was happening, Don and Mike had grabbed him under his arms and hurled him into the Battleshell, slamming the door shut behind him.

Leo was about to have a full on screaming fit, until he saw Donnie and Mikey hop into the front seat of the van. He had been worried that his younger brothers were going to fight off that many Foot ninja themselves. Mikey grinned as Leo exhaled the breath he had been holding. "This is a tactical retreat!" Mikey said. "No need to get worried. We're not _stupid_."

"Well, I'm not." Donnie quipped with a grin. Mikey stuck his tongue out as his brother started the car and took off.

"Where's Raph?" Leo demanded, happy that he had managed to sound completely in control.

Don rolled his eyes. "With Casey, drunk, but otherwise _completely safe_. Seriously, Leo, did you feel the need to be ironic? Because running after Raph so that you can keep him from 'doing something stupid' only to get attacked by Foot ninja while he's safe at Casey's, _really wasn't your brightest move_."

Leo felt his face heat up in embarrassment as he closed his eyes. His embarrassment doubled when he opened them to see Mikey studying him pensively from the passenger's seat. "You okay, bro?" Mikey asked again, worry etching his face at Leo's quiet and pallid demeanor.

Leo grimaced, "My leg isn't doing too good." He saw Mikey giving him this look that said, _no duh_. Leo sighed, feeling foolish. He then noticed that Mikey's long bandana tails had gotten caught in the door. He was about to tell him when Mikey's eyes got large.

"I think they're chasing us!"

"What?" Donnie asked distractedly.

"The Foot's got wheels!" Mikey said. Leo then watched as any trace of humor vanished from his little brother's face.

"_Donnie step on it_!"

Suddenly, Leo felt himself hurling through the air as the sound of breaking glass and crushing metal filled his ears. _They hit us!_, Leo thought wildly. He desperately tried to flip in mid-air, so as not to go flying through the windshield head first.

Leo felt his shell make impact with the dashboard, the plastic crushing under his weight. The collision had knocked the wind out of him, but luckily his shell had absorbed the impact, leaving him no worse off. Leo looked to see Donnie coughing and hacking. Leo noticed that his brilliant brother had remembered to put his seatbelt on. _Unlike me_, Leo thought. His body suddenly jolted as he realized that he didn't know if Mikey was had been wearing his too.

Leo got into a sitting position and looked at the passenger's seat. Like him, his youngest brother hadn't been wearing his seatbelt, but he hadn't gone flying through the windshield, either. Instead, he was slumped in his seat with his head pulled back at an odd angle, his mouth slack. The caught bandana tails kept his head taut. Leo dimly realized that his eyes were open.

"Mikey! _Mikey_!" Leo turned to see Donnie screaming Mikey's name, desperately wrenching at his seatbelt. Donnie scrambled across the van towards Mikey's seat, frantically rubbing his hands across Mikey's face and arms. "It's okay!" Donnie babbled. "It's not bad! I can fix this! I can fix this!"

As Leo watched his brother, he wondered why it was getting so hard to think. He felt like he was jumping up and down, trying to catch his thoughts as they floated past him, but always slipping through his fingers. He numbly wondered how Donnie thought he was going to fix a broken neck.


End file.
